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In the Shadow of the Wood - a frontier campaign - UPDATED 12/28
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<blockquote data-quote="Enkhidu" data-source="post: 1915072" data-attributes="member: 351"><p>Looks like I've got an audience. Well, I aim to please:</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>**</p><p></p><p></p><p><strong>Tenthday, 7th week of Spring, 2476 ER</strong></p><p></p><p>Chase, balanced precariously atop Pug’s back as the bear methodically mauled his way around the whipping and grasping branches of the druid’s entangling spell, watched as the goblin took his hostage. For a moment, he considered expanding the spell, and began the complex hopping and squawking routine that his avian form required to cast Circle Magic, but stopped when Fen began calmly negotiating with the goblin in the native’s own tongue.</p><p></p><p>“Let the woman go and you can still live,” the rangy marksman called. “If you don’t, we will be forced to kill every one of you.” <em>Root and stone</em>, thought Chase, <em>he’s serious.</em> As if to accentuate his point, Fen pulled back an arrow on his bow and brought it to bear on the goblin. </p><p></p><p>“There are things worse than death!” cried the goblin in return, “the masters will…” The goblin never finished his statement as Fen’s arrow buried itself deep in his shoulder. Half a heartbeat later, Ezekiel slammed against the native, knocking him away from the woman, who collapsed on the ground. The goblin snarled and shouted in return, “No survivors!” Then he whipped a throwing axe from its holster and let it fly. The weapon tumbled end over end, missing Ezekiel by more than a span, until it finally came to rest edge first in the fallen woman’s back. </p><p></p><p>In fury, Chase called a bolt of lightning from the clear sky that left the goblin a smoking husk. Then he did it again; and again. By the time the druid exhausted the spell, not a goblin was left standing. He scanned the survivors: Ezekiel stood somberly over the woman’s body with Jex nearby, while Fen began searching the ground as if looking for a trail. Pug rooted around at the edge of the entanglement, which still held several arrow-filled goblins fast. When the druid dismissed the spell, they fell as lifelessly as the branches that held them.</p><p></p><p>Only after the constant crackling and swishing of the enchanted branches ceased did Chase hear the sobs.</p><p></p><p></p><p>**</p><p></p><p></p><p>Jex had found them first, huddled under a wagon laden with forest debris less than a score of paces from the fallen tree. Their faces marked them as father and young son, something Ezekiel confirmed when he arrived and called them by name. </p><p></p><p>Now he watched from afar as the young man comforted the boy, lifting him up and carrying him as the boy sobbed and sobbed. He embraced the boy’s father as well, who looked on the verge of tears himself, and brought them both toward the monk. There he gently laid the boy in Jex’s arms and led the father nearer to the fallen tree. When the older man began to weep and groan, Jex patted the boy on the head and shushed him. </p><p></p><p></p><p>**</p><p></p><p></p><p>“Say that again,” Fen said with a disturbed look on his face.</p><p></p><p>“Simon said that there are dozens of them in there,” answered Ezekiel.</p><p></p><p>“Not that part.”</p><p></p><p>“That if one of them gets taken inside they don’t come out?”</p><p></p><p>“No. The last part.”</p><p></p><p>“Oh.” Ezekiel paused for a moment. “He said that, within the tree, the dead walk.”</p><p></p><p>“That’s what I thought you said.” </p><p></p><p>For long moments, the four men stood silently, digesting the news. Fen brought his hand to his forehead and rubbed his temples as if in pain; Jex pursed his lips in concentration; Chase simply looked sad; but Ezekiel fumed.</p><p></p><p>The young man finally snapped. “The Prince of Darkness himself could not be more evil than this!”</p><p></p><p>“Calm down, Ezekiel,” Jex said, laying a hand on the younger man. </p><p></p><p>“I will not calm down!” he cried, shrugging off the older man’s arm. “Didn’t you see what they’ve done? Can’t you see what they are? Savages!” He pointed at the corpses. “Even dead they still reek of evil.”</p><p></p><p>“We still don’t know why they’re doing this,” said Chase, “they could be…”</p><p></p><p>“You don’t understand,” Ezekiel said, more coldly this time. “I can <em>see</em> it in them.”</p><p></p><p>The men fell silent again. For long moments the only sounds they heard were those of Pug scratching his back against a tree a stone’s throw away. </p><p></p><p>Ezekiel again broke the silence, “Whether or not you come with me, I’m going to put an end to this.”</p><p></p><p>“No one said anything about you going alone,” said Fen. “But if we do this, we’re going to do it right.” The rangy man’s hard eyes scanned the other three men. “Chase, I need you to take to the air and give us an idea of the lay of the land. I want to know where that tree is, what’s around it, and any natural terrain we can use to our advantage – hills, drop offs, waterways, anything. I’m going to see if we can catch up to Simon and the boy and escort them close enough to the trail to get them back to Mansker’s. The old man will know what to do.”</p><p></p><p>“Where and when do you want to meet?”</p><p></p><p>“About a mile north of here, far enough away that we won’t have to worry about the scavengers that will be arriving shortly.”</p><p></p><p>Chase turned, his face flowing like quicksilver at his nose became a beak. As his feathers sprouted from new wings, Jex’s voice came from behind him, “And what should Ezekiel and I do?”</p><p></p><p>“You’re both religious men,” Fen answered matter-of-factly, “I suggest you pray.”</p><p></p><p></p><p>**</p><p></p><p>Chase flew under the ever thickening and ever taller canopy of the trees, his eagle eyes picking out details in the waning light while he mentally mapped the forest floor. <em>I wonder if this would be easier as an owl</em>, he thought, <em>it’s like an endless night under these leaves. We’ll have to make sure that we bring our own light when we come. </em></p><p></p><p>Chase had swooped lower to get a closer look at the ground when the stench hit him. It was cloying and sickly, like a rotting stump. He climbed to escape it, but it clung to him like a spider’s web. The stink grew stronger as he came further south.</p><p></p><p>Worse, the darkness deepened at the same rate as the odor. In the darkness, Chase’s eagle eyes watered, and he finally roosted on a leafless branch over one hundred feet from the ground to clear both his vision and his head.</p><p></p><p>As he rested, he began thinking. <em>This is all under Wood’s protection, so how could he have not told me about this? A tree large enough to shelter a small tribe of goblins and some men? How could he have missed it? It must be at least…</em></p><p></p><p>In the growing darkness, he saw the outline of the tree’s trunk. It’s bark was so dark as to be nearly black, and it looked sickly. Its leafless limbs wound their way through the high canopy, as if leeching life from the healthy trees around it, while the ground below was ringed with ditched filled with some vile liquid. And it was immense, larger than Mansker’s Fort – maybe even larger than King’s Crossing.</p><p></p><p><em>That’s not the home of a tribe</em>, he thought as he fled the sight, <em>that’s the home of an army.</em></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Enkhidu, post: 1915072, member: 351"] Looks like I've got an audience. Well, I aim to please: ** [b]Tenthday, 7th week of Spring, 2476 ER[/b] Chase, balanced precariously atop Pug’s back as the bear methodically mauled his way around the whipping and grasping branches of the druid’s entangling spell, watched as the goblin took his hostage. For a moment, he considered expanding the spell, and began the complex hopping and squawking routine that his avian form required to cast Circle Magic, but stopped when Fen began calmly negotiating with the goblin in the native’s own tongue. “Let the woman go and you can still live,” the rangy marksman called. “If you don’t, we will be forced to kill every one of you.” [i]Root and stone[/i], thought Chase, [i]he’s serious.[/i] As if to accentuate his point, Fen pulled back an arrow on his bow and brought it to bear on the goblin. “There are things worse than death!” cried the goblin in return, “the masters will…” The goblin never finished his statement as Fen’s arrow buried itself deep in his shoulder. Half a heartbeat later, Ezekiel slammed against the native, knocking him away from the woman, who collapsed on the ground. The goblin snarled and shouted in return, “No survivors!” Then he whipped a throwing axe from its holster and let it fly. The weapon tumbled end over end, missing Ezekiel by more than a span, until it finally came to rest edge first in the fallen woman’s back. In fury, Chase called a bolt of lightning from the clear sky that left the goblin a smoking husk. Then he did it again; and again. By the time the druid exhausted the spell, not a goblin was left standing. He scanned the survivors: Ezekiel stood somberly over the woman’s body with Jex nearby, while Fen began searching the ground as if looking for a trail. Pug rooted around at the edge of the entanglement, which still held several arrow-filled goblins fast. When the druid dismissed the spell, they fell as lifelessly as the branches that held them. Only after the constant crackling and swishing of the enchanted branches ceased did Chase hear the sobs. ** Jex had found them first, huddled under a wagon laden with forest debris less than a score of paces from the fallen tree. Their faces marked them as father and young son, something Ezekiel confirmed when he arrived and called them by name. Now he watched from afar as the young man comforted the boy, lifting him up and carrying him as the boy sobbed and sobbed. He embraced the boy’s father as well, who looked on the verge of tears himself, and brought them both toward the monk. There he gently laid the boy in Jex’s arms and led the father nearer to the fallen tree. When the older man began to weep and groan, Jex patted the boy on the head and shushed him. ** “Say that again,” Fen said with a disturbed look on his face. “Simon said that there are dozens of them in there,” answered Ezekiel. “Not that part.” “That if one of them gets taken inside they don’t come out?” “No. The last part.” “Oh.” Ezekiel paused for a moment. “He said that, within the tree, the dead walk.” “That’s what I thought you said.” For long moments, the four men stood silently, digesting the news. Fen brought his hand to his forehead and rubbed his temples as if in pain; Jex pursed his lips in concentration; Chase simply looked sad; but Ezekiel fumed. The young man finally snapped. “The Prince of Darkness himself could not be more evil than this!” “Calm down, Ezekiel,” Jex said, laying a hand on the younger man. “I will not calm down!” he cried, shrugging off the older man’s arm. “Didn’t you see what they’ve done? Can’t you see what they are? Savages!” He pointed at the corpses. “Even dead they still reek of evil.” “We still don’t know why they’re doing this,” said Chase, “they could be…” “You don’t understand,” Ezekiel said, more coldly this time. “I can [i]see[/i] it in them.” The men fell silent again. For long moments the only sounds they heard were those of Pug scratching his back against a tree a stone’s throw away. Ezekiel again broke the silence, “Whether or not you come with me, I’m going to put an end to this.” “No one said anything about you going alone,” said Fen. “But if we do this, we’re going to do it right.” The rangy man’s hard eyes scanned the other three men. “Chase, I need you to take to the air and give us an idea of the lay of the land. I want to know where that tree is, what’s around it, and any natural terrain we can use to our advantage – hills, drop offs, waterways, anything. I’m going to see if we can catch up to Simon and the boy and escort them close enough to the trail to get them back to Mansker’s. The old man will know what to do.” “Where and when do you want to meet?” “About a mile north of here, far enough away that we won’t have to worry about the scavengers that will be arriving shortly.” Chase turned, his face flowing like quicksilver at his nose became a beak. As his feathers sprouted from new wings, Jex’s voice came from behind him, “And what should Ezekiel and I do?” “You’re both religious men,” Fen answered matter-of-factly, “I suggest you pray.” ** Chase flew under the ever thickening and ever taller canopy of the trees, his eagle eyes picking out details in the waning light while he mentally mapped the forest floor. [i]I wonder if this would be easier as an owl[/i], he thought, [i]it’s like an endless night under these leaves. We’ll have to make sure that we bring our own light when we come. [/i] Chase had swooped lower to get a closer look at the ground when the stench hit him. It was cloying and sickly, like a rotting stump. He climbed to escape it, but it clung to him like a spider’s web. The stink grew stronger as he came further south. Worse, the darkness deepened at the same rate as the odor. In the darkness, Chase’s eagle eyes watered, and he finally roosted on a leafless branch over one hundred feet from the ground to clear both his vision and his head. As he rested, he began thinking. [i]This is all under Wood’s protection, so how could he have not told me about this? A tree large enough to shelter a small tribe of goblins and some men? How could he have missed it? It must be at least…[/i] In the growing darkness, he saw the outline of the tree’s trunk. It’s bark was so dark as to be nearly black, and it looked sickly. Its leafless limbs wound their way through the high canopy, as if leeching life from the healthy trees around it, while the ground below was ringed with ditched filled with some vile liquid. And it was immense, larger than Mansker’s Fort – maybe even larger than King’s Crossing. [i]That’s not the home of a tribe[/i], he thought as he fled the sight, [i]that’s the home of an army.[/i] [/QUOTE]
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